1. OWEN JENNINGS to the Minister of Social Services and
Employment: What are the reasons for the 22% growth in
persons registered unemployed over one year to 108,511,
since the election, and what steps are being taken to
reverse this trend?

2. HELEN DUNCAN to the Minister of
Education: What reports has he received on the amount of
funding the Auckland region gained as a result of the
removal of bulk-funding and the implementation of the
Government's Resourcing for the Future package?

3. Rt
Hon WYATT CREECH to the Minister of Finance: Will the
Government be making an announcement on research and
development policy at the Business Forum next week; if so,
will it be a continuation of the current grants scheme, a
change to 100% tax deductibility as promised in the Labour
Party pre-election policy, or will it be a policy of partial
deductibility where research spending carried as an expense
in a company's accounts can be written off as a tax
break?

4. KEITH LOCKE to the Minister of Foreign
Affairs and Trade: Does the Government support a
self-determination process for West Papua so that the people
can democratically determine their own political future; if
not, why not?

5. Hon BILL ENGLISH to the Minister of
Finance: Does he agree with Retail Merchants Association
chief executive John Albertson who said, in relation to the
September quarter consumer price index result, that "we've
probably only picked up in the tail end of that period the
start of what might be ahead of us in terms of this very
heavy cost pressure"; if not, why not?

6. JUDY KEALL to
the Minister of Health: What initiatives is she taking in
the health workforce area to address workforce shortages?

7. Hon ROGER SOWRY to the Minister of Immigration: Has she
identified the officials she stated had not told her the
truth; if so, what action has she taken to ensure that this
does not happen again?

8. Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS to the
Minister of Fisheries: Are negotiations for the sale of
BIL's share of Sealords progressing towards completion?

9. Hon TONY RYALL to the Minister of Corrections: How is his
decision to consider a home detention "get out early" plan
for violent offenders consistent with the public's wishes,
as expressed in the Norm Withers referendum?

10. DIANNE
YATES to the Minister of Agriculture: What reports has he
received about radioactive material being spread on Waikato
farms?

11. Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON to the Associate
Minister of Education (Tertiary Education): What
scholarships was he referring to when he said yesterday
"We'll begin to reshape the use of that money into
scholarships to provide support for students who wouldn't
normally get a scholarship, expand the net a bit and bring
more people through into areas that we think logically there
should be more students studying.", and how do they differ
from the scholarship areas announced in the Bright Future
package last year?

12. DAVID BENSON-POPE to the
Minister for Information Technology: What reports has he
received recently about the uptake of information technology
by New Zealand business compared with that in
Australia?

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So Jacinda Ardern and Theresa May have signed a piece of paper promising peace in our time when it comes to our trade with Britain... Right now, a statement from Theresa May on Brexit has as much credibility as a statement by Donald Trump about North Korea’s plans for scrapping its nukes. Despite her recent crushing defeat in the Commons, May is continuing to playing chicken with Britain’s future, for personal and party advantage.

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